


the red sun (is going down)

by Sanna_Black_Slytherin



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Asexual Twelfth Doctor, Fluff, Gen, Lesbian Bill Potts, Light-Hearted, Male-Female Friendship, for full disclosure the title is the first lyrics I heard when I needed a title
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 22:31:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17212049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanna_Black_Slytherin/pseuds/Sanna_Black_Slytherin
Summary: An asexual and a lesbian walk into a TARDIS.





	the red sun (is going down)

**Author's Note:**

> I was sorting through my Drive, when I came across this. Enjoy!

It was during another one of their visits to a foreign planet – which wasn't all that unusual, considering that every planet was foreign to Bill – that the Doctor claimed she simply 'had to see' because 'the purshakee was to die for' (whatever that was), that Bill finally breached the subject.

Technically, she did not so much breach it as stumble upon it by accident by blatantly staring at one of the waitresses.

"She was hot, eh?" Bill said dreamily, still staring at the retreating waitress.

The Doctor looked up, having been focused on the menu, mumbling something under his breath that Bill wasn't quite able to catch. "Hmmm?" he hummed absentmindedly.

Bill sighed, having long since become inundated to the Time Lord's tendency of being distracted by the oddest of things. "I said, isn't she hot?" Bill repeated.

The Doctor drummed his fingers against the table top. "If you say so," he replied skeptically.

"Oh, get off your high horse," Bill snorted. "She was positively  _ stunning _ , by any standards. Don't tell me that you're completely unaffected."

"Should I be?" the Doctor parried, seemingly nonchalant. "Besides, have you considered that your definition of beauty may not coincide with another's?"

"True," Bill admitted, never afraid of changing her opinion if she realized that she was in the wrong. Keeping an open mind was, after all, one of the most important parts of being human. "So what's yours? Definition of beauty, I mean."

The Doctor's eyes shifted, looking uncomfortable. "That's a very broad question, Bill," he said noncommittally.

"What are you attracted to?" Bill clarified.

The Doctor continued to stare at her in open bafflement. “Nothing,” he replied shortly. “Not in the sense that I suspect you mean.”

Bill blinked. She tilted her head. “So you're ace. Huh,” she trailed off thoughtfully. “That actually explains a lot about you.”

“Ace?” the Doctor echoed, confusion evident in his voice.

“Asexual,” Bill elaborated. “You don't feel sexual attraction. Am I wrong?”

The Doctor frowned. “It's not often that anything anyone says surprises me anymore, not after over two thousand years,” he informed her, “but I admit that I didn't understand a word of what you just said.”

Bill's eyebrows went up. This wasn't a conversation she had ever expected to have with a man who was older than the Roman Empire.  _ Oh well _ . She has, since meeting the Doctor, found that life tends to throw the unexpected at you. One should simply go with it. Move on, so to speak. “Have you ever felt an unexplainable pull towards another person,” she began hesitatingly, “a drive to, eh, have sex with them?” she asked bluntly.

“No,” the Doctor replied curtly, his tone indicating that he wished for nothing but that the conversation would be over.

“Ever?”

“Ever,” her mentor and traveling companion confirmed.

“Well, then,” Bill shrugged, “you're asexual. At least by human standards. Wait,” she paused, “are all of…  _ your race _ … like you?”

“Gallifreyans, you mean?” the Doctor shook his head, though Bill couldn't tell whether that was a response to her inquiry. “Humans never cease to amaze me,” he said fondly. “As for Gallifreyans… We are as varied as humans are. Some of us do occasionally– form relationships. Romantic ones. I myself was once bonded with a Time Lady by the name of Patience, though our relationship was never physical. But all of us – Gallifreyans, I mean – are unable to procreate sexually,” he said.

It surprised Bill that she didn't have to prompt him to share anything, as he was usually very secretive about his origins. _ ”A long time ago, a thing happened _ ,” the Doctor had said to her, not long ago. _ “As a result of the thing, I made a promise. As a result of the promise, I have to stay on Earth.” _

Yeah. Right.

“—which means that we used devices called 'looms' to weave together new life from genetic material,” the Doctor went on.

Bill winced. “That sounds odd,” she announced.

“Mac and cheese sounds odd,” the Doctor returned nonchalantly. “But most people like it – and those who don't, learn to live with those who do.”

“Is that supposed to be a metaphor?” Bill asked despite herself, then shook her head. She narrowed her eyes. “Were you actually  _ born _ an adult?” the question sounded almost like an accusation.

“Both yes and no,” the Doctor sighed. “Physically yes, but young Gallifreyans still have to mature mentally. So no.”

“Very specific,  _ granddad _ ,” Bill mocked.


End file.
